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South Africans praise Mandela on national day of prayer

It was fitting that on the national day of prayer Sunday for the late Nelson Mandela, the pews and every available standing space at Regina Mundi Catholic Church were filled to capacity with congregants, tourists and members of the press.

SOWETO, South Africa — It was fitting that on the national day of prayer Sunday for the late Nelson Mandela, the pews and every available standing space at Regina Mundi Catholic Church were filled to capacity with congregants, tourists and members of the press.

The church, built in 1964, is woven into the history of the township that was the epicenter of the uprising against apartheid and its congregants gathered here and in thousands of churches nationwide as foreign dignitaries arrived to honor the man who led the fight for democracy and an end to white rule. A public memorial service is planned at a soccer stadium Tuesday, and an invite-only funeral will be held Sunday in his hometown.

Regina Mundi was the church that offered anti-apartheid activists shelter from police bullets and tear gas during the now famous 1976 uprising in which thousands of students protested and more than 100 died.

So it was fitting as well that Doris Malinga sat on the wooden pews Sunday in the church that has been at the center of the pivotal moments of her life.

It was in the brick building with stain glassed windows and marble altar where she sought refuge from the police in 1976. It was in the church's courtyard where, she says, supporters of the minority white rule killed her 20-year-old son 17 years later.

And it was in those very pews where she sat the following year and began to let go of her anger against white oppressors. That was when she heard Mandela's call for peace, forgiveness and reconciliation after he himself was released from 27 years in prison for trying to overthrow the government.

Lasers beam an image of former South African president Nelson Mandela, projected onto Cape Town's Table Mountain to honour Mandela on the eve of a memorial service to be held in Johannesburg. (Photo: Nardus Engelbrecht, AP)

People gather around tributes and flowers laid at the base of a statue of former South African president Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square in central London. All three living former British premiers are to join current Prime Minister David Cameron at a massive memorial service for Mandela. (Photo: Ben Stansall, AFP/Getty Images)

A young South African girl is lifted by her mother to kiss a statue of former South African president Nelson Mandela before a service conducted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg. (Photo: Christopher Furlong, Getty Images)

Vice President Biden visits a memorial to former South African president Nelson Mandela with South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, right, outside the South African Embassy in Washington. (Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images)

A young boy stands under a South African flag at half staff in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa. Final preparations are being made ahead of a week-long memorial service and funeral for Nelson Mandela. (Photo: Dan Kitwood, Getty Images)

Mpumie Sangweni, a resident of the impoverished township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, says it is "the worst place." Nelson Mandela lived in Alexandra when he first moved to Johannesburg in 1940. (Photo: H. Darr Beiser USA TODAY)

A man prays during a Mass on Dec. 8 commemorating late South African president Nelson Mandela in Soweto, near Johannesburg. South Africans crowded into churches, mosques, temples and synagogues Sunday to remember Mandela. (Photo: Pedro Ugarte, AFP/Getty Images)

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Nelson Mandela's former wife, center, and South African President Jacob Zuma, right, attend a memorial service Dec. 8 for Mandela at the Bryanston Methodist Church in Bryanston suburb of Johannesburg. (Photo: Peter Dejong, AP)

Young members of the choir attend a morning Mass in memory of Nelson Mandela at the Regina Mundi Catholic Church, which became one of the focal points of the anti-apartheid struggle, in Soweto. (Photo: Ben Curtis, AP)

Candles are placed in front of the image of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela during a vigil by Palestinians and members of the African community in the Old City of Jerusalem. (Photo: Ahmad Gharabli, AFP/Getty Images)

A child draws in the condolence register on a page where her mother left a message for "Tata" or "Father" Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Center of Memory in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo: Peter Dejong, AP)

Prayer lamps are lighted during a prayer meeting held by the Tibetan government in-exile. The serviceat the main Tibetan Tsuglagkhang Temple at McLeod Ganj near Dharamsala, India, was dedicated toNelson Mandela and Tibetan self immolator Kunchok Tseten, who died in a protest recently. (Photo: Sanjay Baid, epa)

A woman cries after placing flowers in front of a picture of Nelson Mandela during an interfaith service Dec. 6 at the Grand Parade in Cape Town, where Mandela made his first speech as a free man in 1990. (Photo: Jennifer Bruce, AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian demonstrator places portraits of Nelson Mandela alongside late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the wire fence during the weekly demonstration against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah. (Photo: Majdi Mohammedm, AP)

South African children hold placards showing the face of Nelson Mandela as they celebrate his life in the street outside his old house in the Soweto neighborhood of Johannesburg. (Photo: Ben Curtis, AP)

England cricketers observe a moment of silence to mark the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela on the second day of the second Ashes cricket Test match between England and Australia in Adelaide. (Photo: Saeed Khan, AFP/Getty Images)

South Africans hold a candlelight vigil outside the house of former South African president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg. Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, died at age 95. (Photo: Alexander Joe, AFP/Getty Images)

Australian and English cricket fans observe a minute's silence to mark the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela on the second day of the second Ashes cricket Test match in Adelaide on Dec. 6. (Photo: William West AFP/Getty Images)

South African police set up a cordon outside the house of former South African president Nelson Mandela after his death. Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, died at age 95. (Photo: Alexander Joe, AFP/Getty Images)

A man prays under the marquee at the historic Apollo Theater on Dec. 5, which announced the death of former South African president and civil rights champion Nelson Mandela. (Photo: Andrew Burton, Getty Images)

An artist who goes by the name "Franco the Great" stands in front of a mural of South African leader Nelson Mandela that he painted in 1995, and later added President Obama, on 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (Photo: John Minchillo ,AP)

People examine a painting by Brazilian muralist Eduardo Kobra that features the face of Nelson Mandela on a wall on Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles on Thursday. (Photo: Reed Saxon, AP)

Keaton Anderson, 10, poses for a photograph for his father Dijon Anderson, of Bowie, Md., as they visit the statue of Nelson Mandela at the South African Embassy in Washington, which is currently under renovation. (Photo: Charles Dharapak, AP)

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As she heard the priest praise Mandela's virtue and call on the congregation to follow the late president's example, Malinga is flooded with memories.

"I feel choked up," she says in her native Zulu, holding her hand against her chest. Malinga is 70 and the travails of her life are etched in deep lines on her face. But she is fiercely proud of her family's activism.

She's dressed head-to-toe in yellow, green and black, the colors of the African National Congress, the governing political party that Mandela headed and which is known for its push to dismantle apartheid.

Malinga says she has been a committed member of the ANC since her older sister, who raised her after their mother died, introduced her to the party. At church, she wears an ANC flag wrapped around her neck like a scarf.

"I won't wear black," she says. "I must say farewell to him because he was the ANC.

"He is at peace," she says of Mandela. "And we must remember him."

A Mass in memory of Nelson Mandela takes place at the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, on Dec. 8.(Photo: Ben Curtis, AP)

President Jacob Zuma had called on all South Africans to visit churches, synagogues or any house of worship on Sunday to reflect on Mandela's legacy.

The government said Sunday that 53 heads of state and government had confirmed that they would be attending a national memorial service and state funeral for the country's first black and democratically elected president. President Obama will be among them, and so will Prince Charles of England.

Sitting in Regina Mundi after the service, Tozi Mthokazisi, 36, Lucky Cecilia, 49, and Patience Polite, 44, marvel at how much their country has changed since apartheid was dismantled and Mandela became president in 1994.

"He was a hero," says Cecilia. She says blacks could not walk about freely or visit friends in other places because the government kept track of their every move. They didn't have electricity or plumbing.

"Everything in Soweto is so different for us now," says Polite.

The trio, all mothers, say the ability to finish high school and go to college is the single biggest change that has been afforded blacks since the end of apartheid.

"Before black people could only be teachers, police or nurses or be domestic workers," Polite says. Today, she says, more people can go to college with scholarships and choose their own career path.

The ladies, however, say the country's leaders have not fulfilled the promise laid out by Mandela's victories. They say corruption is rampant and the gap between the very rich and the very poor grows wider.

Mthokazisi says she was too young to remember the daily struggles and humiliation of blacks during apartheid. But, she says, her country — and the world — will never see another leader like Mandela.

"He was chosen," she says. "It was his actions and behavior. It was the way he approached people. Mandela was the father to us all."